Chinese women ‘tricked into Singapore sex trade by WeChat prostitution ring’
- 30 arrests after police find over a hundred women who were tricked by the gang
- Scam allegedly involved luring the women to Singapore with the promise of highly paid professional work
Chinese and Singaporean police have cracked down on an international prostitution ring that trafficked mainland Chinese women into Singapore’s sex trade.
Thirty suspects have been arrested, while police found 144 women who were “clearly deceived into sex work”, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced on Monday.
It said police in China and Singapore had discovered the gang in March and that the gang used WeChat and other messaging apps to trick more than a hundred mainland Chinese women into prostitution in Singapore.
Prostitution is technically legal in Singapore in government-approved red light districts, but is heavily regulated and policed. The city state forbids maintaining a brothel, soliciting for sex in public, advertising sex work online, pimping and recruiting women for sex work.
There are about 80 to 90 licensed brothels thought to be operating in Singapore’s designated red light districts but also many prostitutes working illegally in unlicensed brothels or freelance, according to Vanessa Ho, director of the local sex worker advocacy group Project X.
Singaporean police have cracked down on illegal sex workers in the past, but women are still arriving from places such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and China, Ho said.
